Video Games, Opinions, Thoughts, & Tomfoolery

Category: Sales

So, here are the sales of June 2009. It’s the first time in 29 months that Wii Play didn’t chart in the top 10, so people can stop complaining about it being in there (for now). It’s a bummer to see The Conduit fail to hit the top 10, hopefully that game has legs. inFamous holding onto a top 10 spot is nice.

Hardware

Nintendo DS – 766,500

Nintendo Wii – 361,700

Xbox 360 – 240,600

PlayStation 3 – 164,700

Sony PSP – 163,500

PlayStation 2 – 152,700

Software

360 – Prototype – 419,900

360 – UFC: Undisputed – 338,300

Wii – EA Sports Active – 289,100

Wii – Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 – 272,400

Wii – Wii Fit – 271,600

360 – Fight Night Round 4 – 260,800

PS3 – Fight Night Round 4 – 210,300

Wii – Mario Kart Wii – 202,100

360 – Red Faction: Guerrilla – 199,400

PS3 – inFamous – 192,700

It looks like with the DSi is selling quite well, so Nintendo’s latest hardware revamp appears to be a success so far. Those numbers are combined DSi and DS Lite, however. Other than the DS, sales are starting to suffer that summer slump; but that’s pretty common to see. EA has to be pretty happy this month, as four of the top ten games belong to them.

The hype of E3 is still going strong, so the NPDs slipped out today and they nearly went unnoticed. Here are the results from last month’s sales in the United States.

Hardware

Nintendo DS – 633,500

Nintendo Wii – 289,500

Xbox 360 – 175,000

PlayStation 3 – 131,000

PlayStation 2 – 117,000

Sony PSP – 100,400

Software

360 – UFC 2009 Undisputed – 679,600

Wii – Wii Fit w/ Balance Board – 352,800

Wii – EA Sports Active – 345,800

PS3 – UFC 2009 Undisputed – 334,400

PS3 – inFamous – 175,900

NDS – Pokemon Platinum – 168,900

Wii – Mario Kart Wii – 158,300

Wii – Punch-Out!! – 156,900

360 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine – 120,700

Wii – Wii Play w/ Remote – 109,800

Wii – 5, PS3 2, 360 2, DS 1

Nintendo took six of the top ten games this month and Sony split the remaining four with Microsoft. It’s been a while since the 360 has had such a bad month in the top ten, but its top title alone did put up more numbers than the PS3 was able to between its two. The Wii is really just rolling with the software sales. Wii Play nearly dropped from the top ten…fanboys the world over almost had reason to rejoice. I would have liked to have seen both Punch-Out!! and inFamous put up better numbers, however. Hopefully they hang on in the charts next month, but it’s going to be tough.

Have you seen those Redbox DVD rental machines all over the place? Well, it looks like Wal*Mart is starting to use similar machines in order to accept used games from gamers. NeoCrisis has the earliest details and firsthand experience, so check out the link to see what he thought. It seems that the experience was a bit glitchy, but I’m sure with time all the wrinkles will get ironed out.

Wal*Mart is huge. If this program works for them and they roll it out in all their stores, it’s going to have a huge impact on the second-hand games industry. Gamestop can’t be very happy about this, and publishers who are trying hard to kill used games sales have to be facing some sleepless nights. It’s not like publishers could really pressure Wal*Mart into giving up their used game sales, because publishers absolutely need the sales volume that Wal*Mart provides them. This is a case where if the program is successful, developers and publishers are basically just going to have to grin and bear it.

Another month, another round of sales numbers! Here are the sales figures for April 2o09 in the United States.

Hardware

Nintendo DS – 1,040,000

Nintendo Wii – 340,000

Xbox 360 – 175,000

PlayStation 2 – 172,000

PlayStation 3 – 127,000

Sony PSP – 116,000

Software Top Ten

Wii – Wii Fit w/ Balance Board – 471,000

DS – Pokemon Platinum – 433,000

Wii – Mario Kart Wii – 210,000

Wii – Wii Play – 170,000

360 – The Godfather II – 155,000

360 – Resident Evil 5 – 122,000

DS – New Super Mario Bros. – 119,000

DS – Mario Kart DS – 112,000

360 – Guitar Hero: Aerosmith – 110,000

PS3 – The Godfather II – 91,000

Totals: Wii (3), DS (3), 360 (3), PS3 (1)

Looks like the DSi caused a big boost in DS hardware sales along with software. Nintendo is going to be downright obnoxious at E3 with their chest thumping about sales, I’m calling it right now. They sort of deserve it though. It looks like GH: Aerosmith dropping to $10 managed to put it into the top ten again, imagine that. Hey developers, price drops are good, okay?

Numbers finally come back down to earth in March, but they’re still strong overall. Resident Evil 5 was the biggest seller of the month; which I think most of us predicted. Looks like tank controls can’t hold a good series down, right? Here are the numbers.

Hardware

Nintendo Wii – 601,000

Nintendo DS – 563,000

Xbox 360 – 330,000

PlayStation 3 – 218,000

Sony PSP – 168,000

PlayStation 2 – 112,000

Software

360 – Resident Evil 5 – 938,000

DS – Pokemon Platinum Version – 805,000

360 – Halo Wars – 639,000

PS3 – Resident Evil 5 – 585,000

Wii – Wii Fit with Balance Board – 541,000

PS3 – MLB ’09: The Show – 305,000

PS3 – Killzone 2 – 296,000

Wii – Wii Play – 281,000

Wii – Mario Kart Wii – 278,000

360 – MLB 2k9 – 205,000

360 (3) – Wii (3) – PS3 (3) – DS (1)

Again, no real surprises from last month’s sales. I guess it’s a mild surprise that Halo Wars beat out Resident Evil 5 on the PS3, but that’s debatable. Next month’s NPDs will include the DSi sales, so that should shuffle things up a bit.

Until there’s actually something surprising, I really don’t have much more to contribute to the NPD discussion month to month. I guess it is nice that Street Fighter IV sold nearly 850,000 copies, which means it’s surely over a million by now. Killzone 2 came out a little slow, but we’ll see if it has legs.

Let the fanbooy wars continue! Here are the NPD sales from last month.

Hardware

Nintendo Wii – 679,200

Nintendo DS – 510,800

Xbox 360 – 309,000

PlayStation 3 – 203,200

Sony PSP – 172,300

PlayStation 2 – 101,200

Software

Wii – Wii Fit – 777,000

Wii – Wii Play – 415,000

Wii – Mario Kart Wii – 292,000

360 – Left 4 Dead – 243,000

360 – Call of Duty: World at War – 235,000

360 – Skate 2 – 199,000

Wii – Guitar Hero: World Tour – 155,000

DS – New Super Mario Bros. – 135,000

DS – Mario Kart DS – 132,000

360 – Lord of the Rings: Conquest – 113,000

Wii (4) – 360 (4) – DS (2)

Well, there you have it. There’s not much to say except for that it’s a little surprising to see a return to the top 10 by New Super Mario Bros.. For those that don’t remember, that game came out back in May, 2006. Nearly 3 years later it’s still selling quite well.

It’s no surprise that Nintendo took 3 of the top 5 spots, but it’s a little surprising that Call of Duty managed to outpace some of the big hitters like Metal Gear Solid 4, Gears of War 2, Rocak Band 2, and Guitar Hero: World Tour. Here’s the list.

So while most retail places were getting kicked in the teeth over the holidays, Gamestop was doing quite well with an increase of over 22% in overall sales. The game store claimed that the increase was due to strong sales of new games, and they also revealed their top 5 sellers for the holiday season. So, here they are:

Call of Duty: World at War

Guitar Hero World Tour

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Gears of War 2

Wii Fit

It’s not that surprising, but given how insanely difficult it was to try and find Mario Kart Wii during the holidays, I’m surprised it didn’t edge out Wii Fit.